By: Leah Howard

With the rise of experimental research and curative procedures, it is inevitable that eventually we would start looking in some unique places for a way to relieve disease. This rings true as feces are becoming new area of research for treatment – this usually hushed subject is now quite possibly the next cure for infections. One of the newest form of treatment comes when patients are diagnosed with C. difficile, a bacterial infection that is passed through feces, and manifests when infectious subjects do not thoroughly wash their hands. It is spread through contact, and although it has no effect for some, for others it can be the cause of extreme diarrhea, dehydration, and colon inflammation to the point of being life-threatening.[1] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that approximately 500,000 people in the United States were infected by the disease in 2011, with about 29,000 of these cases being fatal within the first 30 days of their original diagnosis.

For years, antibiotics such as Vancomycin, have been used to treat C. difficile. This is a very effective way of treating the disease, but can wipe out all of the good bacteria located in the gut. This side effect can be an extremely harmful and allow the disease to become recurring or even resistant. When this method fails, some patients may turn to alternative treatment in order to help treat this disease, including fecal transplantation.[2]

Fecal transplantation, or more specifically, fecal microbiota transplant (FMT), is a procedure that has roots in the 4th century CD, but has only recently been applied to treat C. difficile. Present day, FMT is a procedure completed during a colonoscopy, in which the liquidized stool from the donor is delivered into the patients colon.[3] Success rates from fecal transplants are much more effective than standard antibiotic treatment.[4] However, this lifesaving procedure has come under extreme scrutiny and investigation.

For starters, fecal transplants are a very experimental procedure that is starting to be done at home. You can easily search ‘At-Home Fecal Transplants’ and find the steps, tools, and procedures for doing DIY fecal transplants in the comfort of your own home. The issue is that the benefits and downsides of the procedure are still widely unknown. The FDA is cautioning against the growing field of FMT and is only reluctantly allowing for research on the procedure. This is due to the procedure's immeasurability – there is no standard of what is being given to the patients and, as the field of human microbiome is also in its infant stages, there is no way for patients, doctors, and researchers to know what is beneficial and what is harmful in the gut microbiota.[1]

In 2013, with fecal transplantation on the rise the﻿ FDA announced﻿ that all human feces would be considered an unapproved drug and that any research in the field would have to undergo Investigational New Drug (IND) approval. This means that research practices and outcomes must be tested for quality, usefulness, and ultimately worthiness of production on a large-scale basis. Over the past couple of years, the FDA has loosened their tight regulation on FMT research but is still hesitant on its use as a drug and as treatment for diseases such as C. difficil.

The new fields of fecal transplantation and the human microbiome are growing very rapidly as the Human Microbiome Project, an initiative that began less than 10 years ago, attempts to map the Human Microbiome. This work has opened doors for research on topics ranging from how the vaginal microbiome affects pregnancy to how the microbiome can influence the incidence of disease. With these exciting findings, there are sure to be new discoveries and breakthroughs in both fields very soon.